Toto Wolff insists that where the W17 is beating its rivals is not so much on the straights but in corners.
The Austrian made the claim after George Russell claimed pole for tomorrow’s Sprint, 0.621s clear of Lando Norris’ McLaren, 0.641s ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari and 1.734s ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.
“I’m really satisfied, or we can be satisfied with how it went,” he told Sky Sports. “There’s a healthy gap to the others. But for me, Sprint qualifying and also the Sprint race feel a bit like the small race of the weekend. Tomorrow is the real qualifying and Sunday is the grand prix. If we could carry this performance forward there, that would of course be great.
“I think our big advantage here is mainly in the corners,” he added. “You can see it in certain cases, Gasly, for example, was the fastest on the straights, but our advantage comes in the corners.
According to Formula Data Analyis, the Alpine was quickest on the straight, hitting 339 km/h, ahead of Williams (337), Mercedes (335) and McLaren (331). Next up was Audi (334), ahead of the Racing Bulls (337) and Red Bull (333). At 330 km/h, Ferrari was only marginally ahead of Cadillac.
With McLaren and Red Bull battling for the 2025 title, this allowed Mercedes the luxury of switching its focus to 2026 much earlier than its rivals, and is now reaping the rewards.
“We’ve seen in the past teams that have said that we concentrate everything into the next year and then it failed,” said Wolff. “I remember the BMW days where they could have competed for a championship, and then came around with a double diffuser the following year and they left.
“We put a lot of effort into the into the ’26 car, maybe a bit earlier than some of the others. But I’m really happy the integration of power unit and chassis works well.”
The Austrian believes that those teams, like Ferrari and Audi, that manufacture their entire package have an advantage, though he failed to mention Red Bull even though a couple of weeks ago he was claiming that it was the benchmark.
“You can see Ferrari, which is an integrated structure and Audi also as a works team that has certain advantages because you learn early,” he said.
“But then what I’m really pleased with is how the car drives,” he added. “I mean, you see the onboard, the car is on rails, and most of the lap time gain that we have is in the corners.”
Meanwhile, and talking of top speeds, just days after F1 and the FIA were community noted on X for hiding what were perceived negative responses to the new rules from fans, it is claimed that onboard footage from the cars is being digitally altered to give a false impression.
Onboard footage from Kimi Antoneli’s car during Sprint qualifying today showed the car reach a maximum of 325 km/h. However, as his Mercedes heads down the straight, and despite the dashboard clearly showing that he is braking to recharge his battery, the speed remains constant at 325, whereas, as witnessed last week in Melbourne, he was probably actually slowing by around 50 km/h.
Check out our Friday gallery from Shanghai here.